


In Cold Blood

by Vandereer



Series: Tiger by the Tail side stories [4]
Category: One Piece
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:42:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28988700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vandereer/pseuds/Vandereer
Summary: As a young recruit of the ABPD, Coby is finding that he's surrounded by cold-blooded creatures and his moral code is being tested.A Tiger by the Tail side story.
Relationships: Coby & Roronoa Zoro, Coby/X Drake, Roronoa Zoro & X Drake
Series: Tiger by the Tail side stories [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1444588
Comments: 5
Kudos: 13





	In Cold Blood

**Author's Note:**

> This is mostly a prelude to what happens in tiger by the tail with some cobydrake thrown in, so I recommend reading that if you want more context as to what's going on. 
> 
> THO IT IS NEARING its 18 Chapter so If you didn't read I'll sum it up really quick; cops are bad and shit gets fucked. Also spoilers: Zoro gets framed for murder. 
> 
> This takes place a few weeks after the events in the flashback in chapter 8
> 
> Also to any cobydrake shippers walking in I'm sorry for all the Zoro and talk about murder and police corruption they're just sorta My Thing (™) 
> 
> To any tbtt fans walking in? Uh, enjoy lots of Zoro and Coby conversations I guess.
> 
> thank you to kiite for beta reading!

  
_"COBY! GET BACK HERE AND-"_

The grinding bearlike growl of the woman's voice was still reverberating in Coby's ears when he woke up, causing him to propel himself out of bed with a shriek. He stared at his blank bedroom wall as he slowly came back to himself. 

He took a deep breath and glanced at the alarm clock glowing dull red on the bedside table. 

_It's July 29th, 5:35AM, it happened in the past - she can't hurt you anymore!_

He repeated it to himself like a mantra, muttering it under his breath as he groped around for his glasses. 

There was no way he could get back to sleep now, and besides, it was almost time for work anyway. 

Alvida's presence haunted him into adulthood. It was stupid to pretend it didn't, even though he hadn't seen the woman since he was a teenager. She was the whole reason he got into law enforcement, after all. 

_Hope the old bag has gotten herself arrested already._

Coby had just swung his legs out of his bed when his roommate stepped into his doorway. The blonde man yawned and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "Bad dreams again?" 

"Yeah, sorry, Hep. You should go back to sleep, it's early still." 

"Nah, I'll make you some breakfast." 

Coby smiled as he followed Helmeppo into their small kitchen. The tiny apartment wasn't much, but considering how much rent had spiked in All Blue City lately, at least they had somewhere to call home. Even if most of their furniture wobbled when you leaned on it too much. 

“I don’t know why I can’t just get over it already," Coby muttered, as Hep cracked some eggs into a pan. "Chief Sakazuki is _way_ scarier than she ever was.” 

“She had a definite effect on your formative years, don’t beat yourself up.”

Hep turned slightly to Coby as he scrambled the eggs with a fork. "I dream about _him_ sometimes, too." 

Coby nodded, knowing he was talking about his father, Captain Morgan. He had let the capture of a provocative and dangerous criminal go to his head and thought himself untouchable. It baffled Coby how no one had noticed he was embezzling funds until Zoro brought it up and insisted they make an arrest. 

It gave Coby faith that if there were any more bad cops, they would find out about it at least. He had faith in that. 

He left Hep to eat while engrossed in his newspaper. Why he was reading about things they already heard at work all day, Coby had no clue. All the buzz involved a murdered drug manufacturer called Caesar Crown and the mysterious serial killer on the loose. 

While the newspapers were abuzz with fear and speculation about when and where the killer would strike next, Coby and Helmeppo knew better. The killer seemed to have gotten what he wanted and his trail had gone cold. He probably wouldn't strike again anytime soon, not after almost killing a police officer. 

Coby decided to go for a run before work, to get rid of the excess anxiety from his dream. When he got to the ABPD building, he wasn't sure if it had worked. Anxiety was about the only thing he had in abundance. 

He showered, then changed into a fresh uniform in the locker room. The place was hectic and noisy with the kind of jock talk Coby thought most men should probably leave behind in high school. He often felt like he was about to get noogied, being the shortest person there. 

He paused in the middle of buttoning up his shirt as one of his better paid detective co-workers slouched in.

Zoro's tan skin had a greyish tinge to it as he walked in, and Coby could see the white edge of bandages creeping out from under his collar. 

Coby could tell by the way he carefully peeled himself out of his biking leathers that he was very much _not_ recovered. 

Several choice words had been floating around the office involving Zoro; ‘breaking protocol’, ‘attacked by a serial killer’, ‘eight hours of life saving surgery’… 

Yet here he was, coming into work almost on time. 

"Oh! Mr. Roronoa sir!" Coby said, deferring to the polite way to address someone his senior, even if it was only by a few years. "You're back from leave already?" 

Zoro eyed him like a wolf studying a mouse and Coby wondered if he was about to fall over. 

He opened his locker and shoved his motorcycle helmet onto the top shelf. The metal boomed, making Coby jump. "I've got to come back into work at _some_ point, right?" 

Coby decided not to push it. He got the impression Zoro’s pride had been wounded from going after the man they were calling Hawk-Eyes alone. 

Zoro walked out yawning so wide his jaw looked likely to dislocate. Coby had been considering asking him out for some time, but it was tough to find the right moment when Zoro looked about to collapse, even before the incident.

Coby had barely walked out of the locker room before he almost walked into the solid form of one of the captains.

Smoker glowered down at him with his usual cigar clamped between his teeth. 

"Sakazuki wants to see you in his office. Coby, come with me." 

  
  


_Well, good to know that run accomplished nothing!_

Coby felt his blood pressure hit the roof as his anxiety spiked. He clutched his chest, wondering if it were possible to have a heart attack at 23 years old. 

“S-Sakazuki wants to see me?! About what?”

_I’m fired, I am SO fired. What did you do that got you fired? Think, Coby, think!_

Smoker snorted. “You think he’d deign to tell me that? Move along now, don’t keep him waiting.”

Coby squeaked as Smoker put a hand on his shoulder to guide him towards the stairs. 

  
  
  


Smoker walked Coby down the hall, past the glass windows of the haunt of the Homicide and Narcotics departments. Coby had only been inside Sakazuki’s office twice, once when he first started working at the ABPD, and again after the awfulness of the incident with Captain Morgan was over, to congratulate him and Helmeppo on their bravery.

Still, the man hadn’t stopped being terrifying. Being called up to his office was like being called up to face judgement from some ancient god. 

As Coby entered, with a persuasive little shove from Smoker, something about Sakazuki’s appearance and posture spoke something godlike, too. His wide shoulders and broad face brought to mind a totem carved out of stone; an idol etched with a permanent fearsome expression. 

Coby felt so small as he was ushered in next to another enormous man, a man with flame red hair and chin with a cross-shaped scar slashed into it. He nodded at Coby in greeting, but the serious expression on his face didn’t shift. He folded his thick arms over his chest and suddenly Coby was fighting back the urge to giggle. The movement made his tie shift into view, which had a selection of colourful dinosaurs on it.

He suppressed the urge as Smoker closed the door behind him and slightly shook his head. Coby straightened his back and nodded his greeting at Sakazuki. He tried to say something as well, but found that his jaw was glued shut in terror. To his surprise, Sakazuki stood up and opened his arms, like he was greeting an old friend. 

“Coby! Good to see you, son.” Coby stood transfixed as Sakazuki shook his hand. “Captain Smoker has told me a lot about you.”

“He has?” Coby managed to say, albeit so quiet he wasn’t sure if the Chief could hear him.

Smoker seemed to be very interesting in the cityscape outside of Sakazuki’s window, but turned to give a distracted nod.

Sakazuki smiled at Coby, and the result was terrifying. "Smoker tells me you're very loyal, Coby. I need good men like you on my side."

Coby glanced at Smoker, but the older man seemed to be avoiding looking back at him. Sakazuki moved to sit back behind his desk, and Coby was relieved that he wasn’t standing so close anymore. His knees wobbled like he was standing near a cliff edge.

“You’re being moved into a new division, headed by Officer Diez here.” Sakazuki waved a hand at the man with the dinosaur tie. “This is top-secret. I want you to know that you’re going to tell no-one about this. Nothing I say to you leaves this office."

Coby nodded slowly.

"Officer Diez is the captain of SWORD division,” Sakazuki continued, “he’s requested that you be moved into SWORD immediately. Consider this a ‘trial run’. If you perform well enough it will be permanent.”

Coby met Diez’s eyes, then glanced away again. He was awfully intimidating, though Diez seemed to be just as scared of him. “Good to have you on board.” Diez said, without looking at Coby.

“Thank you sir. Uhm, Mr. Sakazuki, sir-”

“You’re part of a highly classified division now, kid. I suggest you drop it with the ‘um’s.”

“Right, sorry. What about my partner Helmeppo?”

“He’ll be assigned a new partner temporarily. You’re being excused from all previous duties, you answer to no-one but Diez and myself, and you’re to tell no-one about this meeting. Now, Diez will explain what he wants from you.”

Diez nodded at Sakazuki and folded his arms behind his back. “Thank you sir. I’m about to go undercover posing as a member of Kaidou’s gang, to keep an eye on their movements. There’s been a shift in power now that Caesar Crown is dead and we’re anticipating that Kaidou will make some big moves. My intelligence source tells me that there’s a high chance of some street warfare, maybe even some civilians getting caught in the crossfire.”

Sakazuki smiled slowly and leered at Diez from over his folded hands. “Apologies for Mr. Diez, he can never seem to make eye contact while he’s talking to you. It’s something you’ll get used to, I’m sure.”

Diez turned bright pink and turned to meet Coby’s eyes, though Coby suspected he was concentrating hard on a spot above his eyes instead. “Apologies. I’m going to need a reliable network of officers ready to act in case of the high chance that I am discovered.”

“And I’m one of those officers?” Coby said.

“Smoker tells me you were involved with Captain Morgan’s arrest, that you got quite a name for yourself.”

“O-oh yes, well... I was just doing my job.”

Coby looked at his shoes; he felt like he had merely been caught in the crossfire more than anything else. If Captain Morgan hadn’t attacked Garp, Coby probably wouldn’t have thought to step in at all. He looked up again. “Sir, if you don’t mind me saying so, everyone’s been talking about Hawk-Eyes, the killer. Isn’t our priority to catch him?”

The room went dead silent. Sakazuki’s air of fatherly cheeriness dissipated and Diez looked at Coby sharply. Smoker’s adam’s apple bobbed as he suppressed a wince. Sakazuki shot Smoker a glare before tilting his head at Coby, cold anger in his carved-stone eyes.

“Your _priority,_ officer, is to do what you’re told. Are you going to follow your orders, or has Smoker misjudged you?" 

"Uh, n-no sir."

“You are not to mention the name Hawk-Eyes at all. As far as you are concerned, he doesn’t exist. Understood?”

“Yes sir.”

"Good. Now get out.” 

Coby tried to not run for the door like the room was on fire. Why did he say that?! 

Smoker was about to follow Coby and Diez out, but Sakazuki stopped him with a wave of his hand. "Not you, Smoker. A word." 

  
  
  


* * *

"You have a lot of gall to talk back to the Chief like that." Diez muttered, once they were clear of Sakazuki's office. 

"Well, I thought our priority was catching bad guys! One of our own got hurt, so I thought Sakazuki would want to see justice done!”

“I’ve seen you talking to Roronoa a few times, are you friends with him?”

Coby nodded, smiling. “Mr. Roronoa really helped me find my feet when I first started working at the ABPD.”

Diez didn’t seem too pleased about that. "Well, you could pick better company. Roronoa seems to have a habit of making Sakazuki angry. Come with me and I’ll show you what I mean.”

Coby yelped as Diez pulled him around the corner, back to a corner of Sakazuki’s office where the blinds on the other side of the window were snagged. Coby could see Sakazuki at his desk, and Smoker standing in front of it. His posture was like that of a man awaiting his execution.

"Listen.” Diez whispered.

Coby leaned in, hearing a muffled conversation through the thin walls.

“I want you to keep him on a short leash from now on. You understand?" Sakazuki was saying.

"Yes sir." 

"Are you still trying to persuade him to quit?" 

"Yeah, but he won't. He's doubled down on Hawk-Eyes and I can't get him to drop it." 

"Keep trying. You know what happens to nosy young upstarts who don't stay in their lane, Smoker." The sharp edge in Sakazuki’s voice told Coby it was less a threat than a promise. “Keep him busy with meaningless cases and soon he might drop it on his own accord.”

Smoker paused for a few moments before he responded, sounding tired and defeated. “Sir, he’s young still, just a kid really, promise me-”

“Nothing will happen, as long as you keep him under control. If you can’t, well, you have only yourself to blame, Captain.”

Sakazuki slid something across the desk, a thick envelope. “Here, go buy Roronoa and Noda a beer. My treat.”

"Is Smoker taking _bribes?"_ Coby whispered.

Diez nodded. 

"How long has this been going on?" 

"Who knows? But this whole Hawk-Eyes thing has gotten Sakazuki wild. He's been passing bribes around like mad and I've been trying to find out _why."_

"No," Coby muttered as Diez guided him away, "Smoker wouldn't take a bribe, he's not that kind of man!" 

“I’m afraid it doesn’t take much to turn an honest man around here. Roronoa doesn’t seem to notice that he’s walking around with a target painted on his back. He’s going to get himself killed one of these days, if he doesn’t watch where he steps.”

“What are you talking about?”

Diez glanced around to make sure the corridors were empty. “I don’t feel safe discussing it here. Come to my home tomorrow. If we’re going to be working together, I will have to fill you in.”

Coby nodded, a crease between his brows as he took the set of directions Diez was scribbling onto a piece of paper. What place could be safer than a police station? 

Diez walked away, soon disappearing around a corner with his long stride. Coby followed at a distance, staring at the tiles as he replayed what he’d just seen over and over in his mind. An uneasy feeling was starting to build inside him.

A low voice spoke from behind Coby, almost directly in his ear. “Was that guy bothering you?”

Coby bit back a shriek and turned around. _“_ How long have you been standing there?!"

Zoro had his hands in his pockets as he loomed over Coby’s shoulder, trying to read the directions as Coby hastily hid them behind his back. “Asking you to come to his house, kinda shady isn’t it?”

“I think _you’re_ ‘kinda shady’!”

Zoro stuck out his lower lip, as if pondering whether to be offended by that or not. “What are you doing up here, anyway?”

“Oh uh, Chief Sakazuki wanted to see me for something.” Coby’s ears burned when he skipped over the part where Zoro was the subject of conversation. He wondered if he should tell Zoro about what he had just seen. He and Smoker didn’t always get along, but Zoro would probably want to know that his boss was taking bribes, surely?

Zoro’s eyes narrowed.

Coby laughed nervously at the intensity of the look. “I thought he was about to fire me, I even started trying to think about something I had done wrong! Do you want to get lunch later?”

“Sure.” Zoro said slowly. "See you." 

* * *

It took Coby a few hours and a _lot_ of breathing exercises before he had the courage to face Zoro again. He could barely focus on his work, and he had no idea how to tell Helmeppo that they wouldn’t be working together for a while. 

He found Zoro sitting at a table with his bento box, his posture slumped and tired as he ate the same meal he always did; a neat arrangement of rice, grilled fish and vegetables, with hard-boiled eggs on the side.

Coby sat across from him with his flask of soup and a sandwich, realising that the knot in his stomach was too tight for him to really eat anything. Zoro looked at him with one eye closed as he chewed his food.

“Hey Mr. Roronoa sir, not to pry or anything but how is-”

_How are you feeling about almost getting murdered? Rephrase that better, idiot!_

Zoro stared at him silently as he fumbled for the words. “How are you doing lately?” Coby finished lamely.

Zoro raised his arched brows at him flatly. “I’ve been better.”

Coby chuckled, glancing down at the many, many bandages visible at the neckline of Zoro's button-up shirt. “Well, yeah. Sorry, you must be getting that a lot.”

“Sure am.”

“I’m just saying if you want to talk about anything, I’m here.”

Zoro nodded. "Thanks. I'm fine, really." 

Coby tried not to stare at the bottle of painkillers next to Zoro's protein shake- sometimes he wondered if he just ended up substituting one vice for another. 

“I wanted to ask you, what do you think about Diez?”

"Why are you asking me?" 

“He asked me to come to his house on Saturday because he wants to discuss- uh, some work stuff. Plus, you’re pretty observant, what’s your read on him? You don’t seem to like him very much.”

  
Zoro stared off into a corner of the room, narrowing his eyes. “I’ve heard _rumours.”_

Coby groaned impatiently. “What _rumours?”_

  
Zoro turned back to him suddenly with a wide toothy grin, like a shark. “That he killed his own father and buried him in his backyard!"

_“Mr. Roronoa!_ Can we have one conversation that isn’t completely _morbid?!”_

  
Zoro shrugged and dissected a boiled egg in half with his chopsticks. “Hey, you asked me what my read on him is. I don't care to know much about the guy, we don't talk. Besides, he’s quiet - keeps to himself.”

“I guess it's easy to make up creepy rumours about someone when you don’t know much about them; people make plenty of creepy rumours up about _you.”_

Zoro smirked back at him over his chopsticks as he loaded them up with rice. “Well, the thing about rumours is, there’s usually a grain of truth to them.”

“So, you think it’s true?”

  
Zoro shrugged. “Even if it is, Barrels was a piece of shit, by all accounts. Everyone knows he was abusive, then got himself killed dealing with the Donquixote family. If he really did it, I’d say nothing of value was lost.” He said it so casually, as he shoved his rice into his mouth.

  
Coby pursed his lips. “Well, he was still a human being. I can’t say I approve.”

“Hey, if you spend years kicking a dog, even if that dog is the gentlest creature on Earth, you shouldn’t be surprised when it jumps up and bites you. The guy had it coming!”

"You sure seem to know a lot about Diez, for claiming to not care. How do you know all this stuff, anyway?" 

Zoro smiled, clearly sharing a private joke with himself. "I have my ways."

"Is that another way of saying you spied on him, by any chance?" 

"That's on a need to know basis. C'mere and I'll tell you." 

Coby rolled his eyes and leaned over the table, until he was close enough to see that Zoro's smoky grey eyes had rings of pale yellow in them, and that he had missed a couple of patches of stubble while shaving that morning. When he wasn't being _fucking scary_ he was extremely nice to look at. 

As Zoro leaned closer and smiled, Coby felt his face heating up. 

Zoro flicked a stray grain of rice off his chopsticks and it stuck squarely to Coby’s forehead.

Coby scowled at him as he swiped the food off his face. “I’m going to have you written up, for lack of office decorum!”

Zoro grinned evilly at him again, his lip pulling up to show a canine tooth. “Let me know how it goes with patricide!”

Coby gathered his lunch up, scowling and thinking about finding somewhere else to eat, when Zoro stopped him, leaning back in his chair and holding out his arm. “Hey, let me give you a ride at least.”

Coby huffed. “I can’t ask you to do that, you should spend your day off resting!” 

“I insist.” Zoro jabbed his chopsticks at Coby’s chest.

“Just because you work in Homicide it doesn’t make everyone a murderer, Zoro!”

“Know that for sure, do you?”

Coby frowned. It was a little odd that Diez was inviting him to his house. The directions pointed up in the hills towards the fancier part of town.

Up in the hills. Isolated. About as far as you could get from a police station as possible without leaving the city.

Coby sighed. “Alright, _fine!”_

  
  


* * *

  
  


Zoro drove _fast_ , despite Coby’s pleas for him to drive like a normal person. Traffic lights were a brief respite from the wind rushing past Coby’s helmet and the grey city passing in a blur. He held onto Zoro’s waist and squeezed his eyes shut as he swerved the bike through the traffic downtown.

“It feels faster because you’re not used to riding a bike, just hang on!” Zoro yelled, before revving his bike and speeding off again.

“I WISH I’D TAKEN THE BUS!” Coby screamed over the roar of the engines.

Coby’s legs were jello by the time Zoro parked up in front of Diez’s house. In a neighbourhood full of old fashioned mansions and constructions of modern concrete and glass, it seemed out of place. With its stone walls and climbing plants growing on it, it looked like the kind of place you would see in an English murder mystery novel. The windows were dark, but Coby thought he saw one of the curtains on the lower level twitch.

As Coby tugged his helmet off, his face and hair were dripping anxious sweat; he probably stank to high heaven. Just the thing he needed for meeting the man who was essentially his new boss.

Zoro pulled off his own helmet, his earrings flashing as they caught the summer sunlight as he did so. “Makes you feel alive, doesn’t it?”

Coby leaned on his knees. “I think I’m gonna throw up.”

“Want me to hang around for a while, to make sure he doesn’t murder you in cold blood?”

“No just- wait there while I go in.” Coby said as he tried to shake some sensation back into his legs.

Zoro grinned. “Are you sure? I’d rather not have to investigate the death of a co-worker.”

  
“I’ll call you if I have any problems and I’ve told Helmeppo what I’m doing, too! Will you drop it with the murder thing?”

"Alright," Zoro said slowly, leaning on the handlebars of his bike and looking at him like a panther laying across a tree branch, "but if you don't text me in an hour I'm calling the coroner!” 

Coby flipped him the bird before stomping up the gravel driveway. He could feel Zoro still watching him with amusement as he rang the bell. Soon he was staring up at Diez in whatever he took were his casual clothes, a button up shirt and simple slacks. "Ah, hello Coby." 

“Hello Mr. Diez!”

Diez nodded at him, before narrowing his eyes in Zoro’s direction. “Is he-?”

“Oh, Mr. Roronoa was giving me a lift. He wanted to make sure I got here in one piece.”

Coby chuckled as he turned to make shooing gestures at Zoro, who waved at Diez with a sarcastic flip of his hand and shoved his helmet back on. He revved a couple of times before whirling the bike around in a wild spray of gravel. Coby could see the deep track he made in Diez's driveway before he tore off down the country lane. 

Coby smiled apologetically up at Diez. “My roommate Helmeppo was busy with paperwork and I didn’t know who else to ask for a ride!”

"Oh, it's-" Coby could sense Diez struggling to not make a comment, "-no problem. Please come in." 

The first thing that hit Coby walking in was the smell. A powerful scent of old furniture, polished wood and greenery that made Coby nostalgic somehow. Under that was the smell of some kind of animal. The walls were dark red wallpaper, and the dark floorboards covered in worn tapestry rugs.

Coby wriggled out of the biking leathers Zoro had lent him and Diez hung them up on a coat hook, though he declined to let him do the same for the sweaty hooded sweatshirt he wore underneath. 

"You don't really like Mr. Roronoa, do you sir?" Coby said, as he followed Drake down the hall. 

“I don’t mean to display my personal biases in the workplace, it’s not professional of me, but in some cases I can’t help it.”

“Zoro is one of those cases?”

Diez's mouth twisted in a frown. “I am _uncomfortable_ around alcoholics.”

Coby chuckled. “Well, everyone knows Zoro loves a cup of sake once in a while!"

“I heard it was a little more than _liking a cup of sake once in a while_ ,” Diez huffed, “he was completely dysfunctional when Sakazuki hired him. That was the first sign I took that Sakazuki’s hiring standards were not up to par.”

“He’s made an effort to cut down recently. Though sometimes he relapses around the winter, he can’t help it.”

“Yes well, I didn’t mean to criticize your friends. It’s not my place and I apologize. Oh and please, call me Drake.”

Coby nodded, wondering if he had the guts to use his first name. The animal smell grew thicker as they passed a room with the door open a crack. When Coby glanced inside he could see a stack of glass tanks. Drake pulled it shut before Coby could see any further. 

"Pardon, a little hobby of mine."

It didn't seem to be the only hobby as they passed another room full of taxidermied animals, many of which were covered with white sheets. 

"A relative of mine was very much into hunting." Drake explained, when he noticed Coby's staring. 

Thankfully the room Drake led him into was less creepy. The study was bright and open, full of comfortable looking couches and potted plants. A large window looked out onto a wild garden and draped its light onto a large oak desk, covered in papers and old coffee cups. 

"Please make yourself comfortable." Drake said, blushing. His posture was stiff and his hands clenched into fists. "I uh, have to go to the bathroom."

Coby raised his brows at Drake's sudden exit and went to look out of the window. A stone fountain full of brackish water stood amongst overgrown stone paths. It looked like no-one had walked there in decades. 

He couldn't help but scan the weed-choked grass, for any mounds of disturbed earth like someone had buried something there. 

He then shook his head, annoyed at himself for taking Zoro’s words at face value. He was probably laughing at Coby right now.

_“...the thing about rumours is, there’s usually a grain of truth to them.”_

“Dammit Zoro.” Coby muttered.

Coby was wandering around the room, looking at a star chart and resisting the urge to fiddle with a large telescope when Drake blustered back in. He hurried to stack some papers on his desk. “Uh, sorry for the mess. I don’t often have visitors.”

“Don’t worry about it! You seem like a very interesting person, Mr. Diez. I’ve always wanted to study astronomy, but I never really had the time with my college studies.”

“O-oh, I could tell you about it some time if you-” Drake shook his head and discreetly dropped an empty coffee cup into a drawer. “-That’s not what I asked you to come here to discuss. We should keep this strictly professional, there’s a lot at stake.”

Coby walked closer with a bemused smile. “You make it sound like the world is ending, sir.”

  
  


Drake didn’t return his smile as he turned towards the window. "Listen, Coby. The things I've learned about the ABPD make even Kaidou look like a saint. I think something very, _very_ bad is about to happen." 

It was odd, the way Drake switched from stiff and stern to highly animated as he started to talk.

"Absolute justice is Sakazuki's motto. To deal justice, no matter what the means might be. I believe that his crusade against crime has led him to become corrupt, there’s a high chance that he could even be colluding with criminals.”

Drake paced up and down by the window, talking almost as if to himself alone with wild hand gestures. “I thought the idea of it was strange, contradictory even, but then it started to make sense to me-"

“He gives them a certain amount of leeway to commit crimes like, say, executing Caesar Crown, but in Sakazuki’s eyes he’s cleaning up the streets! That’s why he doesn’t want Roronoa to investigate any further.”

"You think Sakazuki would really work with a murderer?" 

Drake nodded, a strand of red hair falling across his forehead. "I don't put anything past him. I'm growing increasingly worried that Sakazuki's judge, jury and executioner act is blurring the lines of what constitutes a 'criminal' as well. Innocent people could get hurt, if they haven't been hurt already, that is!" 

"Uh, Mr. Diez? Should we tell Mr. Roronoa about- I mean Smoker is his boss. He'd want to know about this." 

"I don't think it would do him any good. You heard it yourself; Roronoa's dug too deep and now he's in trouble. It's only a matter of time before-"

Coby's pulse was thudding in his throat. Was he really implying that Zoro was going to get hurt again? 

"-Well, I'm not sure anyone can help him now." Drake finished. 

"What can we do, about _any_ of this?" 

"That's where I'm a little stuck, I'm afraid. The rest of SWORD unit doesn’t know about this, you're the first person I've really confided in.” Drake put his hands behind his back and stared at a loose floorboard. "I've found myself in a position where I have more information than I know what to do with, but no way to apply it." 

Drake's eyes were bright when he glanced back at Coby, his cheeks slightly flushed. "So, what do you think?" 

Coby found his way to one of the leather couches and slumped down onto it. "Mr. Diez this is, _so_ much." 

The brightness in Drake’s eyes faded a little. "But, you understand me, don't you?" 

Coby didn’t, not really. He refused to believe the highest level of command in the police force was doing something like this. It didn’t make _sense._ He shook his head. “Not to be rude, sir but you’re starting to sound a little paranoid.”

"Coby!" Drake made as if to grab his wrist, before thinking better of it. 

"I know this must seem overwhelming, but I need you to know what the stakes are here. I only want-" He closed his eyes and inhaled before opening them again, "I think Sakazuki chose you for this role because he knows you're loyal to the force. I think he wants you to mold you to fit his version of justice.”

“I’ve done some terrible things while working undercover. It’s too late for me but I hoped that if I intervened now, I could stop the same thing from happening to you.”

“I don’t need saving, Mr. Diez.”

Coby pulled his phone out to call Zoro and stood up. He offered his hand for Drake to shake it. "I think I'm going to leave now, thank you for inviting me into your home." 

He hurried to the front door, almost tripping over the beautiful rug in the process. He quickly pulled the biking leathers back on and put his hand on the doorknob.

Drake called after him from the other end of the hall. "Coby, one last thing; if Sakazuki asks you to speak to him alone, I would refrain from taking his advice." 

Coby nodded and walked outside. After a quick phone call, he stood staring at his feet until Zoro pulled into the driveway.

"Something wrong?" Zoro said, as he thrust his spare helmet into Coby's hands. 

Coby stared at his reflection in the glossy black surface. His own confused face stared back at him, warped and out of proportion from the curves of the helmet. "Mr. Roronoa, do you think the police force is good? Like, what we're doing is for the best?" 

"Huh? I don't know, I guess it doesn't matter much to me. It's just a job." 

"Right. All you care about is catching Hawk-Eyes." 

"Yeah. Bet my life on it." 

"If you don't care about doing good, why risk your life for it?" 

Zoro breathed out an impatient sigh through his nose and got off the bike. He put his helmet down on the backseat and shoved his hands in the pockets of his leather coat. 

"Who knows? Maybe I’m a sucker for punishment. I dunno why else I would put up with Smoker’s bullshit every day, or smile every time someone voices the rumour that there isn’t a single guy in the city I haven’t slept with.”

Coby blushed a little as Zoro leaned down to look him in the eye. “Maybe it’s because I’m fucked in the head enough to believe that maybe I could prevent some kid out there from going through the same thing that I did." 

The dark look in Zoro's eyes told Coby he very much didn't want to go down that line of questioning. Then Zoro gave him that scary shark grin again. "There has to be some reason, otherwise we'd be crazy huh?" 

Something was causing Coby's stomach to churn. Zoro's flippancy about death hadn't been very funny from the start, but if Coby told him what he now knew, he wondered if Zoro would even care. 

Zoro was single minded and solidified about his goal; 'catch Hawk-Eyes', while Coby's dream of being a brave man who could stand up to any injustice was becoming more vague and muddied by the moment. To the point where he felt like he was sinking. 

"Hey." Zoro said, tapping Coby's leg with his foot. "What got you off on this weird tangent, anyhow?" 

Coby shook his head. "Nothing, it's nothing." 

One of Zoro's brows twitched up. "Did he do something weird? Want me to go in there and kick his ass?" 

"No thank you, Mr. Roronoa." Coby straddled the bike and put his helmet on, determined to not complain about Zoro's driving on the way back. "I can take care of myself just fine." 

* * *

_That could have gone better._

Drake grumbled to himself as he waited for the coffee machine to grind out something that resembled a black coffee. He put a splash of milk into the sludge that dripped into his cup and swirled it around before downing it. It was Monday morning again and all he could think about was Coby, and how badly he had scared him off.

The worst thing would be for Sakazuki to sink his claws into a fervent believer in the immutable word of the law like Coby and warp him into becoming another corrupt monster like the rest of them. Drake couldn’t help feel like he had lost his chance and gotten both of them into trouble already.

Roronoa's spiky head popped up from behind the divider like a lurking shark and Drake tried not to wince at what was coming. He cursed at the office space for SWORD being so close to the Homicide department.

"What were you doing with Coby?" Zoro said.

Drake's neck felt hot, it only just occurred to him how strange it might look if he was caught inviting a younger co-worker he barely knew into his home. Then again, considering the danger he was putting Coby in, maybe it was better if the rest of the office only thought they were sleeping together. 

“Nothing that concerns you, _Detective."_ Drake said.

Zoro pinned him down with a glare. "He's a little young for you, isn't he?" 

"No! That's not-" Drake tried to fight back the flush on his cheeks. "Not any of your business actually. And I outrank you, so I don't know why you are speaking to me like this." 

Roronoa opened his mouth, presumably to make some kind of snappy comment, when a woman called over to him. 

"Zoro!" 

Detective Tashigi was scowling at him and tapping her leaking pen against her arm. She sat at the wide octagonal table where a lot of files and papers were spread out around her. She pointed at the empty chair next to her as if to say ‘get over here, now!’.

Zoro winced as he slunk over to sit down.

Drake smiled to himself as Tashigi appeared to be giving Zoro a tongue-lashing, waving at the masses of paperwork and files in front of her. Zoro, to his credit, sat there and took it with his head bowed and muffled apologies. 

Drake left them to their arguing and left to find Coby. 

He found him in the copy room, printing off a massive stack of papers. Coby looked like he was trying to intimidate the printer into going faster by scowling at it. 

"Good morning, Coby." Drake said, measured and careful. 

"Good morning Mr. Diez." Coby said back, prim and neutral. 

"I apologise if I was a little forward on Saturday. I often have trouble with social boundaries. I hope I didn't overstep any lines and upset you."

"You were perfectly alright Mr. Diez. You gave me a lot to think about." 

Drake rumbled out an unhappy noise, he had _definitely_ upset Coby. 

“I understand what you’re trying to do, sir." Coby said quietly. "But I don't know if I want a part in it." 

Drake folded his arms and leaned in close, trying to speak as gently as he could.

"I'm sorry Coby, but you are a part of it, you have been from the moment you chose to wear a badge. It depends what you want to do now. I won’t judge you either way. I just wanted you to know that.”

Coby turned away from the copier with a lost look in his big blue eyes. Suddenly Drake felt terrible for telling him at all. Maybe he would have been happier living in his naivety.

Drake flinched and stood back upright as someone walked in behind them. Tashigi looked awkward as she pushed her glasses up her nose with an ink-stained hand. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to, interrupt?”

Drake didn’t even realise that he had his hand on Coby’s shoulder and they were standing very, very close.

“Sorry, we’re uh-” Drake started, before Coby interrupted.

Coby rushed in, laughing. _"Dating,_ we're dating! Sorry but could you keep it a secret?" 

Drake wished at times like this that he could hold in his blushing. "Yes, it's shameful for me to admit, since the age difference between us is-" 

Tashigi lifted her hands, "Ah, it's alright! It's none of my business. To be honest I haven't even told my partner that I'm a lesbian yet. I know how office rumours can spread." 

Tashigi left with a wave, and Drake quirked at eyebrow at Coby. 

“So. We’re dating now?” Drake said.

“I guess so. I mean, Sakazuki told me to keep everything about working with SWORD a secret, right?” There was a hint of amusement to Coby's face and he soon broke into a smile. 

Drake looked at him curiously. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm wondering how this situation can get anymore _awkward_!" 

Something about the way Coby gave him a sidelong glance made Drake relax, and he felt a wry smile pulling at his lips. "I'm sure we'll have plenty of opportunities to find out." 

**Author's Note:**

> I’m not a huge coby simp but I do like him a lot, and I have a lot of complicated feelings on him that I can’t just sum up with ‘acab’ and moving on like i know a few people tend to do whenever he and the marine characters in general are brought up. I put a lot of thought and effort into this so don’t be rude, please.
> 
> Stay safe out there everyone, wear your masks and keep your heads held high.


End file.
